Capsule Post #3- Recount, Mister Lonely, Year of the Dog

October 30, 2008

Recount (2008) ***

Directed by Jay Roach

Plot: This made for HBO film spotlights the historical and often ridiculous weeks following the 2000 presidential election. The networks initially called Florida for George W. Bush and then later for Al Gore. Finally, the state was deemed too close to call which then focused the spotlight on Florida’s popular votes which in some counties were submitted through confusing punchcard ballots. Famous Hollywood A-listers play the public faces of the two campaigns as they fight both in the legal courts and the court of public opinion. I’m about to spoil the movie for you—Bush wins.

Review: Before 9/11, the 2000 election was the most fascinating event in recent American history. Who would have guessed that the electoral college would split right down the middle leaving everything in the hands of one state whose popular voting would show that less than 500 votes ended up as the difference between the two candidates. I remember sitting in my dorm room in college until 1 AM waiting to find out who our new president was going to be. If I recall correctly, I woke up around 2 AM to learn that Bush won. Then, around 8 AM, I turned on the television to find that there was no winner. It was absolutely amazing to experience a curve ball on such a massive scale. Later that day, I bought the local Allentown, Pennsylvania newspaper which had a distorted picture of both candidates on the cover. The paper must have printed one story and then somehow tried to fix it with the new story causing the error on its cover. I kept that newspaper for months thinking I’d hold onto it as a reminder of that election. Since it started changing colors and smelling bad, I eventually threw it away.

That night, I fell in love with politics, and I haven’t stopped paying attention since. My impression is that the legal challenges the Gore campaign put forward ultimately proved to be a colossal mistake on his part, making him a national joke. He’s since redeemed himself big time, becoming the world’s leader on environmental reform, winning an Oscar in the process due to the great documentary An Inconvenient Truth. Yet, for months and even years after Bush won the presidency (despite having a lower percentage of popular votes nationwide), Gore was an embarrassment both to himself and to the Democratic Party.

Therein lies my problem with Recount. This film clearly portrays the Gore campaign as the one with more integrity fighting always for justice. It’s too bad that this goes completely against the public’s judgement of the situation. Though Recount does often paint the Bush campaign as sympathetic, it shows Republicans as mean-spirited just as often. Therefore, this movie loses its historical importance as an objective glimpse into three of the craziest weeks Americans have ever and will ever experience.

All of the performances are fine, especially Kevin Spacey and Laura Dern. I enjoyed seeing so many great actors playing characters that entered and exited the plot. As a film, Recount is often entertaining, though I have to admit that there were too many characters to keep straight. I felt at times like I was watching stars arrive at a red carpet event. Hey, there’s Tom Wilkinson! Oh look, Richard Dreyfuss! Holy cow, there’s Dennis Leary, etc. A better film ought to be made about the 2000 presidential election. With such fascinatingly preposterous events as fodder, Recount should have been a major achievement. Instead, it’s only a minor one.

Mister Lonely (2008) *****

Directed by Harmony Korine

Plot: Brace yourself for this one folks! A lonely Michael Jackson impersonator (Diego Luna) in Paris meets a Marilyn Monroe impersonator (Samantha Morton) who invites him to live on a commune in Eastern Europe inhabited only by celebrity impersonators. We meet a sadistic Charlie Chaplin (Denis Levant) who’s more like Hitler than Chaplin in both appearance and behavior. We also meet Madonna, James Dean, Shirley Temple, The Pope, The Queen, The Three Stooges, a foul mouthed Abraham Lincoln, Sammy Davis Jr., Little Red Riding Hood and Buckwheat, who seems just a bit too interested in the chickens that live outside their house. Michael Jackson finally feels like he belongs somewhere and that there are people in the world that truly understand him. They all work together to build a stage so they could put on a revue for the local villagers. Will their show be a success, and will they all find meaning in their lives? Or will it be a failure, leaving some of the impersonators wondering if they can continue living in delusion?

Meanwhile, in South America, a nun falls out of a plane delivering rations to local villagers. She survives and convinces her fellow nuns to jump out of the plane as well with no parachute. They all return unharmed, leading the nuns and eccentric Father Umbrillo, played absolutely hilariously by the great Werner Herzog, who has my favorite speaking voice in the history of all mankind, to hop a plane to the Vatican in order to meet the (real) Pope. What happens next is one of the great ironic surprises you’ll ever see in film.

Review: I absolutely ate this movie up! In general, I adore well-made off-beat films, though I’m put off by strangeness for strangeness’ sake. Harmony Korine, most likely a strange person if his films are any indication, wrote the controversial film Kids and went on to direct the uncomfortably bizarre Gummo and most recently Julien Donkey-Boy. Mister Lonely is his most accessible film to date, and yet, it’s absolutely weird when judged against even the most extreme off-beat mainstream movies. Still, I felt that every single wacky moment serves a comprehendible purpose in this film.

Though there are laugh out loud funny moments in Mister Lonely, Korine brilliantly contrasts them with a permeating sense of hopelessness regarding life’s ability to be easily fulfilling. Both the nuns and the impersonators live lives of profound disillusion, thinking that they have found what they are looking for in life’s journey. It is certaintly fun to see these characters experience true joy, but like life, the cruelty of existence can’t be held off forever.

While I don’t share Korine’s grim worldview, I do appreciate the way he perhaps exorcises his demons through this movie. Similar to Margot at the Wedding, Mister Lonely comes off almost as a cinematic therapy session. The difference though, is that Margot at the Wedding forces us to spend time with the most hateful characters imaginable, while Mister Lonely surrounds us for the most part with wonderfully pleasant caricatures. Other than Michael Jackson, who is a gentle, if not naïve, individual, and Marilyn Monroe, who is a spectacular human being but doesn’t know it herself, the other players in this film aren’t fleshed out. Still, collectively, they represent an optimistic worldview, which, according to Korine, is simply not accurate.

Mister Lonely is a perfect film for anyone who wants to confront that side of himself or herself which sometimes yearns to give up completely. You’d think a film like that would be a downer, but read the plot of Mister Lonely again and you’ll see that you’ll be smiling almost constantly while watching. And for those of you who have always wanted to see Queen Elizabeth in bed with Abraham Lincoln or giving the Pope a bath, then Mister Lonely is the film for you!

Year of the Dog (2007) ***1/2

Directed by Mike White

Plot: Lonely secretary Peggy (Molly Shannon) receives much of her happiness and fulfillment from her loyal dog Pencil. When Pencil dies suddenly, Peggy turns to those around her who are too preoccupied with their own relationships to provide her with the support she needs during this difficult time. At the veterinary hospital, an animal lover named Pier (Thomas McCarthy) notices Peggy, and after a few weeks, he calls her to see if she is interested in adopting a troubled German shepherd named Valentine. She meets Pier and Valentine at the same time and takes a liking to both. Unfortunately, when she tells Pier how she feels, he pushes her away saying that he can’t have a romantic relationship with a human being. Ummm… ewwww. Putting the beastiality allusions aside, Peggy then becomes an outspoken advocate for animal rights, which begins to get in the way of her job, her relationship with her sister’s family and her sanity. Eventually, Valentine, who has bitten her before, does something which forces him to be put to sleep. This stressor pushes Peggy over the edge causing her to adopt over thirty dogs and to seek revenge on her hunting-loving neighbor Al (John C. Reilly) whose chemicals Pencil ate that fateful night. Peggy hits rock bottom, and in her attempt to start over again, she learns a lot about who she is as a person and who she wants to become.

Review: Molly Shannon is a freak--plain and simple. She always looks like she’s trying to stop herself from running around and screaming like a maniac. Perhaps the greatest female physical comedienne in Saturday Night Live’s history, Shannon would often play characters that were creepily energetic and/or certifiably nutty. In Year of the Dog, Peggy starts off low key and remains this way for much of the film, until suddenly, she spins rapidly out of control. For the first hour and fifteen minutes, Shannon skeeved me out, always wearing an eerie expression of false concentrated restraint. If I met Peggy in real life as she is at the beginning of Year of the Dog, I think I’d want to leave her company as soon as possible. If I had kids, I’d tell them not to be alone with her. There’s something just not right with Peggy from the onset, and the credit for this belongs to Shannon alone. A different actress wouldn’t have been as off-putting.

That being said, I think my repulsion towards Peggy makes her a memorable and interesting character. Shannon does have brilliant moments—understated as well as uninhibited. I’m not sure Shannon has a long future ahead of her. She can’t play normal women—at least I’m not convinced she can at this point. Therefore, her options are very limited. Personally, I think she’d be perfect as a serial killer in an extreme horror film, though you couldn’t drag me to actually sit down and watch it. I’m somewhat scared of Molly Shannon already. Seeing her in a horror film might just damage me for life.

The final act of Year of the Dog doesn’t work at all. Mike White, who directed and wrote this film, goes too far in showing Peggy’s descent into potential madness. By the end, I feel like White intended that I laugh at Peggy’s expense, which left me with a bad taste in my mouth. Overall, though, there are enough really funny scenes to make Year of the Dog succeed. Its blend of light and dark humor often commingle nicely, and Shannon certaintly brings another level to this film with her caaaarrrrrraaaazzzzyyyy performance (a little SNL reference there)! I’m writing this review on Halloween night, so it feels right that, after contemplating Molly Shannon’s Peggy two days after watching Year of the Dog, I’m sufficiently freaked out!

Capsule Post #2- The Wind that Shakes the Barley, This Is England, After the Wedding

October 26, 2008

The Wind that Shakes the Barley (2007) ****

Directed by Ken Loach

Plot: That old story about a revolution tearing a family apart is told well in this visually stunning war pic starring Cillian Murphy as Damien, a recent Irish medical school graduate who dedicates his life to the Irish Republican Army determined to rid Ireland of Britian’s imperial soldiers. There are few battle scenes in this film since it focuses on a handful of Irish soldiers as they deal first with persecution, imprisonment and even torture, and then later they become fully committed to the cause of total Irish freedom in the 1920’s. Of course, the IRA has since become known as a terrorist organization, which makes it that much more striking that this film paints their founding with gentle, approving strokes. Yet, The Wind that Shakes the Barley is ultimately a meditation on one man’s struggle to choose between his family and his country.

Review: Septuagenarian British director Ken Loach provides a movie that is on the one hand powerfully effective and on the other hand surprisingly not memorable. It’s clear that Loach didn’t have the biggest budget in the world, which is obvious when you look at the opening credits and you realize that just about everyone on the crew has a blatantly Irish name. This clearly wasn’t a grand studio film; instead, it was shot in location in Ireland, and it is here that Loach tries to tell this grand story with limited resources. What’s great about the Irish landscape is that it is vast and gorgeous, which makes the film seem more expensive than it really was. Yet, I feel like this movie is far from definitive regarding the Irish revolution of the twenties. Perhaps a more exhaustive film will someday be made about this subject.

I tried twice before in recent weeks to watch The Wind that Shakes the Barley, but I ended up turning the film off within the first half hour. I was frustrated by the heavy, lower class Irish brogue. At first, I could understand every fifth word if I was lucky, and not being able to understand what characters say is one of my big pet peeves—which accounts for why I watch all movies with subtitles on whenever possible. Yet, after a while, I began to get used to the accents, and I also believe that the actors start speaking clearer as the film progresses. There is realism to much of the line delivery. Clearly, these young Irish actors were improvising at times, simply conversing with each other or proclaiming cries of encouragement or disapproval whenever appropriate. Therefore, this film’s atmosphere and tone work well, providing an intimacy that betrays the epic historical subject matter.

I liked everything about The Wind that Shakes the Barley; however, with the exception of the film’s visual beauty, I didn’t love any single aspect of the film. Not one character stood out to me, and the only reason I remember Cillian Murphy specifically is the fact that I kept telling myself that he looks like he could use a sandwich or something. He’s distractingly thin. Most sequences satisfactorally jump from conflict to conflict, and as a result, Loach left me with very little to single out. If you like Irish history, war films, Ken Loach or Cillian Murphy, then you should see The Wind that Shakes the Barley. If you like gorgeous cinematography more than anything else when seeing a film, then put this one at the top of your list.

This Is England (2007) *****

Directed by Shane Meadows

Plot: A lonely, troubled eleven year-old boy named Shaun (Thomas Turgoose) befriends a group of skinheads in early 1980’s England during the time of the Falkland Wars. At first, these misfits seem to be about good-natured rebellion, wearing goofy clothing, stealing beer and breaking windows in abandoned houses. Everything changes, however, when former gang leader and militant racist Combo (Stephen Graham) returns after a period of incarceration. Combo is not pleased to find that the new leader Woody (Joe Gilgun) has allowed a Pakistani named Milky (Andrew Shim) into the posse he founded. This forces young Shaun to choose sides, leading him directly into a philosophy of deep anger and potential violence. At such an impressionable young age and in a country that doesn’t give a damn about those in poverty, Shaun’s bound to get himself into mischief that he’s not emotionally ready to handle.

Review: This Is England is absolutely absurd in the best ways possible. Why in the world would this gang want a boy Shaun’s age to hang around? Why would they treat him so ridiculously nice? Why would his mother approve of him hanging with these punks? There’s a point somewhere in this film where you stop asking questions like these, precisely because you begin to see the seriousness of the situation that Shaun has gotten himself into. Shaun becomes less like an end in himself and more like a paradigm through which one can view this troubled time in England where the government ignores real domestic problems in favor of a useless war halfway around the world.

Though Combo’s character is a villain through and through, he’s not solely to blame for the anger that he clings to—at least this is the argument the film makes. Ignoring the problems within her country’s borders, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher paved the way for the slippery slope that thrusts Shaun into profound evil and mayhem.

This Is England may sound like a heavy film, and in one sense it is quite disturbing. Yet, there’s an innocence that permeates from beginning to end which makes the film quite enjoyable. The absurdist decision to use a young boy to examine this glimpse into recent history is simply a stroke of genius. This Is England contains great performances all around, especially from Stephen Graham as Combo. He reminds me a lot of Russell Crowe, and if his performance here is any indication, he’s a spectacular talent!

This Is England is unconventional and surprising. Even better, though, is the fact that Meadow’s indie film is also extremely insightful and intelligent. This Is England is a great achievement!

After the Wedding (2007) ***1/2

Directed by Susanne Bier

Plot: Danish filmmaker Susanne Bier directs this family drama about an orphanage owner in India named Jacob Pederson (Mads Mikkelsen) who travels to Denmark in order to meet with a billionaire who has expressed interest in financing his charitable work. The billionare is named Jorgen Lennart Hannson, played brilliantly by Rolf Lassgard. Jorgen tells Jacob that he needs the weekend to make a final decision, but in the meantime he insists that Jacob attend his daughter’s wedding the next day. Once at the wedding, Jacob realizes that Jorgen’s wife, Helene (Sidse Babett Knudsen), is his one time lover from before he moved to India. During a speech, the new bride Anna (Stine Fischer Christensen) mentions how much she loves Jorgen even though he’s not her biological father. It’s here that we realize that Jacob is Anna’s real father. So why did Jorgen want Jacob at his daughter’s wedding? Does he have sinister intentions, or perhaps is there a noble reason why he’s introducing Jacob to the family he never knew? Everything, of course, is revealed after the wedding.

Review: Read the plot again and tell me whether you agree that it sounds like it should be a storyline on a daytime soap opera. Long lost lover meets the daughter he never had. Jorgen’s reason for all of this has a similar feel of cheap melodrama, and yet, After the Wedding doesn’t come off soap opera-ish. Instead, it’s an exceptionally well-acted drama, with an interesting editing technique that I don’t think I’ve ever seen before. At times, it almost seems like four or five frames are missing causing jumps in the natural progression of each scene. This effect is used regularly, but not excessively. It adds a tone of mystery and distortion which helps us connect with Jacob’s feelings of mistrust and confusion.

Yet, After the Wedding is far from perfect. There’s a side plot involving a little Indian boy named Pramod whom Jacob has raised since he was a baby. Before leaving, Jacob promises that he will return for Pramod’s birthday four days later. Of course, with everything going on, Jacob is forced to disappoint the boy. There’s a scene at the end of the film involving Jacob and Pramod that is so saccharine that I felt my blood sugar spike. There’s also an issue involving marital problems between Anna and her new husband that doesn’t work at all. Finally, I found it odd that Bier, who also wrote the film’s story, would think that Jacob’s decision to leave the orphanage was a no brainer. Personally, I think Jacob should have said goodbye to his rich, screwy Danish family in order to help the poorest of the poor in Bombay. Am I alone on this one?

Ultimately, After the Wedding works best as a glimpse into the emotionally guarded Danish culture. These people are so used to bottling everything up that it’s fascinating to see the passion these characters display when finally letting go of so many deep seated emotions. Without a doubt, After the Wedding is very well made, and though it’s not without its narrative weaknesses, this Danish film is definitely worth your time.

Capsule Post #1- The Namesake, The Hoax, Dan in Real LIfe

October 25, 2008

The Namesake (2007) *****

Directed by Mira Nair

Plot: A young, educated Bengali man named Ashoke (Irrfan Kahn) is the only person to survive a deadly train crash, giving him a new philosophy of life which leads him to travel to America with his wife by an arranged marriage, Ashima (Tabu). We see Ashima coming to terms with her future involving this strange man in a strange country—neither of which she can escape from. Time passes and the couple begins to grow close especially because of the birth of their son whom Ashoke decides to name Gogol (Kal Penn), after Russian novelist Nikolai Gogol, whose book he was reading when he experienced the train crash. The rest of the film stays with Ashoke, Ashima and Gogol as each must deal with the tensions between traditional Bengali culture and their modernized American surroundings.

Review: The Namesake is a glorious portrait of one family’s deep love for each other. Because their marriage was arranged, Ashoke and Ashima must learn to love in a way very different than most are used to. Gogol, like so many youth, doesn’t appreciate the amazing lives that both of his parents have led. Both are individuals worthy of respect and admiration, and for the longest time, Gogol looks down on them for being so rooted in what he believes to be a meaningless, outdated culture. Further, he resents his father for giving him such an embarrassing name.

All three main actors give strong performances, though Irrfan Kahn has received the most praise and accolades. Yet, I felt Tabu really stole the entire movie, wonderfully playing a woman in a culture where a woman’s career is to be a wife and mother. Ashima gave up a promising singing career in order to get married, and I was in awe of her when she’s able to sing again at the end of the movie. Here is a woman who has lived a fulfilling, good life, and this is true despite the cultural paradigm you judge her through.

The Namesake is melodramatic, that’s for sure, but it’s also profoundly heartwarming. I grew to love these three characters deeply, sharing in their struggles and enjoying the time I spent watching them interact together. Though these characters don’t wear their emotions on their sleeves, they can rest assured in the fact that they are completely devoted to each other, in good times and in bad times. When Gogol realizes this about his parents, he’s finally proud of his name—as he should be.

The Hoax (2007) **

Directed by Lasse Hallstrom

Plot: The Hoax tells the amazingly true story of Clifford Irving (Richard Gere), who perpetrated a convincing massive fraud on so many in 1971 claiming that reclusive icon Howard Hughes has chosen him to pen his autobiography. Irving, with the help of his bumbling friend Dick Suskind (Alfred Molina), convinces publishing company McGraw-Hill to advance him upwards of over one million dollars for the rights to his impending book. Time and time again, Irving thinks his scam is about to be uncovered, which forces him to use his manipulative talents in order to quell everyone’s doubts about the book’s integrity. Eventually, Irving becomes so obsessed with this hoax that he begins to lose touch with reality, much like the subject of the book he is supposedly going to write.

Review: First of all, all the Botox and hair coloring in the world couldn’t make Richard Gere look as if he is in his forties. It’s ridiculous that he’s playing a man at least twenty years his junior. That being said, Gere is a lot of fun to watch, and his performance is the best aspect of this otherwise lame excuse for a tongue-in-cheek biopic. There are some great supporting performances by great character actors including Eli Wallach, Hope Davis, Julie Delpy, Zeljko Ivanek and Stanley Tucci. Then there’s Marcia Gay Harden, who plays Irving’s girlfriend. Harden is comically terrible, speaking with one of the most bizarre, nonsensical accents I’ve ever heard in my life. Also, there’s a moment in a hotel room between Gere and Delpy that has one of the most obvious errors in editing that I’ve ever seen.

Though this story is based on real life events, The Hoax simply comes off as a tired Hollywood comedy-drama-thriller. Again, this movie expects an inherently unlikable character to win over audiences, and again, like so many films with this same goal, I didn’t buy into it. I found Clifford Irving to be a slime ball, and I found everyone that bought into his con to be painfully naïve. Yes, I understand that the real Clifford Irving convinced so many of his lie, but I’d bet all the money that I’ve got that he was a better con-artist than the character of Clifford Irving in The Hoax. Gere, Molina and Harden constantly wear expressions of total panic as they tell their lies almost as if they are expecting to be exposed as frauds at these exact moments. In their attempts to blatantly communicate suspense to the audience, they simply come off as bad actors during these scenes. The whole shindig about Irving becoming like Howard Hughes feels completely tacked on, and his relationship problems with Harden’s character go absolutely nowhere.

The Hoax is trying to provide a good time. In my opinion, it’s trying to do so without an adequate script. The film has its moments, and as a whole Gere is fun to watch even though he looks like a jackass pretending to be decades younger than he is. Still, I went into this film convinced that this movie would be worth my time—a hoax indeed!

Dan in Real Life (2007) **1/2

Directed by Peter Hedges

Plot: Steve Carell plays recently widowed Dan Burns whose three daughters all struggle with the fact that their father is deeply sad. Dan is able to embrace life once again when he falls in love with Marie (Juliette Binoche) at a book store while visiting his extended family at a winter cabin in Rhode Island. They get to know each other over coffee, and before Marie rushes off, Dan convinces her that they should go out again. He’s excited to tell his family the good news until he meets the girlfriend of his good-natured brother Mitch (Dane Cook). Of course, she turns out to be none other than Marie herself. This causes much tension between Marie and Dan as they are forced to be near each other while Mitch’s infatuation of her increases. Eventually, Dan selfishly hurts those he loves in his pursuit to win over Marie. Will he give up Marie for his family? Will he give up his family for Marie? Will the film come up with some stupid compromise of the two?

Review: Well, maybe you can deduce my opinion of Dan in Real Life’s conclusion from the way I worded the three questions above. The last twenty minutes are horrible, twisting in many directions in order to give us the predictable resolution I was expecting from the beginning. I’m not saying that I need to be surprised by a formulaic romantic comedy. I am saying, though, that a film ought not to jump through so many convoluted hoops in order to end the story in a familiar way. Dan in Real Life would have been better if it allowed its plot to continue in the direction it was heading focusing solely on Dan and his three daughters. Also, there’s a scene involving Dan and Marie in the shower that couldn’t be less believable.

That being said, Dan in Real Life contains two of my favorite actors--Steve Carell from The Office on television and Juliette Binoche from Chocolat and The English Patient-- giving endearing performances. Binoche is so lovable on screen, and sadly, she doesn’t make too many movies these days. Therefore, it was great to see her in this light romantic comedy. She’s one of the most beautiful actresses in movie history in my opinion, and her loveliness definitely adds to this film's appeal. Similarly, I believe that a different actor playing Dan might have made this movie even worse. Dan had the potential to be very unlikable, but Carell’s charm, comedic timing and understated performance help to make Dan a guy we ultimately root for.

The best scene in Dan in Real Life shows the members of Dan’s extended family exercising on the front lawn. Here is a family that plays touch football, competes in battle of the sexes crossword puzzles and throws talent shows in the living room. These moments, especially the exercising, made me smile big time. Also, I thought Dane Cook was surprisingly likable as Mitch, which is saying something considering that I hate Dane Cook!

There’s so much to embrace in Dan in Real Life, but sadly, the film’s ending ruined it for me. I can’t recommend this film, even with great performances by the two leads. If you’re looking for a better romantic comedy with the same amount of heart as Dan in Real Life, rent Waitress.